March Sadness in Lawrence

After KU's first-round exit from the NCAA tournament there are a lot of sad people in and around Lawrence. I would have posted this sooner, but this is a very sensitive subject, and frankly I'm still not ready to deal with it. However, there is much more to deal with than just the agony of defeat.

The amount of money local businesses make during KU's tournament runs is incredible. Every KU basketball game means packed bars and restaurants throughout Lawrence and Kansas City. So if Kansas' tournament run comes to a quick ending, as it did the last two years, these businesses loose thousands of dollars.

These losses also extend to advertising. With KU out, bars and restaurants don't advertise to get patrons to watch the game at their establishment. The University Daily Kansan, KU's student newspaper, we lost on tons of revenue because KU didn't make another tournament run.

As they say, there's always next year, and next year, we're loaded with young talent. Hopefully, local businesses will also be loaded after profiting from a long tournament run.